Professor Bill Shaw CBE

The £11 million, five-year programme – called The Cleft Collective – is the single biggest investment in cleft research anywhere in the world and will draw on expertise from across the UK. The Healing Foundation charity will be providing £5 million towards the project, with additional funding coming from university and NHS partners.

The Universities of Manchester and Bristol will lead the programme, in partnership with the Central Manchester University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, the NIHR Medicines for Children Research Network Clinical Trials Unit at the University of Liverpool and the University of the West of England.

Professor Shaw leads the World Health Organisation’s Collaborating Centre for Research on the Treatment of Craniofacial Congenital Anomalies.The world’s first such centre, it was set up at the University in recognition of the pioneering research into cleft lip and palate and related anomalies carried out by Professor Shaw and his team.